Bioballs giving me nitrates... Help?

[Dylan]

So I made the mistake of starting my Biocube 29 gallon with bioballs. I've been taking them out recently and am down to 1/3 of them left. I upgraded the stock pump for more flow, and took out some chemipure that was previously laying on the bioballs. Now, the water rushes through much quicker, and my nitrates have gone up pretty fast. Can I take all of the bioballs out immediately and siphon out the back chambers?

Thanks!

 

[subielover]

That's what I would do. Followed by a good 30% water change.

 

[Dylan]

Okay thanks :D

 

[Dylan]

I'm about to take them out. Any objections?

 

[killingseed2000]

no, i would remove them all.

 

[elegant_reefer]

no, i would remove them all.

+1...

 

[ReeferRob]

replace with rubble rock

 

[subielover]

replace with rubble rock

This is not a good idea either. It will collect too much detritus back there if not regularly cleaned. I would add a wad of chaetomorpha and a light.

 

[Dylan]

I am going to buy an inTank media basket for chaeto. Hopefully I can get one used for cheap but I can't cheap out on everything :)

 

[pachi_boi86]

I own the same tank too, Nemo, and I had the same problem. I took out all the bio balls, put in some rubble rocks to block chaeto from getting to the third chamber where the pump is. I basically converted that middle chamber to a refugium with a clip-on light from JBJ on top of it. It's been a few months since I set up this mini refugium and i haven't really seen any detritus in the chamber. It always looks clean. Also, I don't use a media basket since the rubble rocks keep chaeto from reaching the next chamber. My nitrate used to be at 40ppm when I had the bio balls, and that's without any fish! My nitrate went down by 20ppm when I took the bio balls out and made a water change. Since then I added 5 fish to the aquarium and my nitrate has never gone above 5ppm. Chaeto grows really fast in this mini refugium too!

 

[ca2or]

Dude in my honest opinion...and again this is only what I would do, I would take all the bio balls out, put LRR in instead after doing a quick vaccuum...then follow up with a few tank changes and you should be good. You can also add some Purigen as I am told it reduces nitrates...I run it and have 3 triggers and I over feed.....nitrates are at .01. Another thing you could do is put xenia or something similar in the LRR section which I also give credit to for keeping my nitrates low.